Motorhome canopy shade curtain ideas
Last year whilst touring Spain we sometimes felt we could have benefitted from a side curtain attached to our Fiamma canopy to help protect us from the sun or wind. On our travels we looked at a number of commercially available ones that other motorhome owners had bought but they seemed to be hard work to erect as they made the canopy into almost an awning, which is not what we wanted. Some also seemed to be a bit of a bodge job, not made to fit correctly etc. and they were all quite expensive. Given the number of times we had to wind in the canopy we thought we could find something better that was easy to fit/remove and kept on looking for a solution.
Then whilst at Bonterra Park we met a Spaniard who had made his own sun protection that he fitted to the outer edge of his canopy rail in a rather makeshift way but it seemed to work. He had what looked like ordinary curtains for the sides so this gave us some more food for thought.
I have now come up with the following option for ourselves and would welcome any comments about having done similar or any practical tips.
We have a Fiamma canopy with the two channels in the outer edge. I will buy a length of the double sided beaded tape used for attaching awnings, like HERE and have it in two separate pieces, one for each channel. I will then use metal eyelets to create fixing points along the length of each tape to correspond with the eyelet holes of a quality shower curtain that may match the van’s décor and then use the shower curtain for the shade etc. If I have two then I can slide them along the rail to get the coverage I need and they will be easy to remove, along with the tape if in a hurry or if that makes it easier. This way our canopy can be wound in and it may even be possible to do this with the curtain attached still? Shower curtains are generally 1.80m square so they should hang just about right and could be weighted at the bottom, or even more eyelets made and pegged down but that was what we really wanted to get away from. The shower curtain by design will keep any rain off without damage to the material and hopefully keep us shaded without taking all the light away. The curtain rings that come with them will easily fit the tape heading eyelets. If we are lucky we will manage to find one that compliments the van probably more than the black netted types we have seen.
My only concern would be the effect of the wind on the side of the curtain so I would probably opt for not pegging it down, we actually have some clip on weights often used for picnic tablecloths which I hope will work well.
Before I go and buy the tape to fit our 3.5m canopy what do you think?
Regards, Roy 